cerco training

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Michael R ----

Where is that, how much and when does it start? I'm looking for the right course at the right place right now

A quick google of the most unique stuff that I could find in what you cut 'n' pasted (vue centre, wellingborough campus) suggests Tresham College, which autoroute informs me is about 25 miles / one hour from my dad's place near Lutterworth (or 67 miles and ~1 hour 45 from my home in birmingham - ain't motorways great?) which makes it within the realms of sensibility if I can't find something decent any closer. There's other more dodgy looking courses that are further away... e.g. cerco in crewe, which is easily more than an hour when the traffic's light.

I don't dare look and see if I've missed the boat until I've sorted out a couple other posts I need to make here though!

(already tried signing up for an A+ and ECDL at a local college and lost out because they're over subscribed - however learndirect may be able to help me, providing I can find one of their centres that actually has the facilities to offer anything above the most basic, outdated flavour of ECDL... the last time i started ploughing through the material (mid 2004) they were still dealing with Zip/Jaz Disks as being a major backup media and CDs not being writable... jeez... and i was picking holes in things they were teaching/asking on the exam that years of experience had shown to be inaccurate/patently untrue... so i just want to get thru it, do the exam, have it under my belt and head for MOS/A+/N+/MCSE stuff - right now looking at mcse its just a little too involved for someone who hasnt touched a commercial network before so i need a midlevel qualification in between)

====

Originally, I was going to say I've been to look at Cerco myself. Again, scored highly but not 100%, and without wanting to be big headed I think the scores were pretty accurate and I know where I slipped up... maybe not so much because I'm a genius, but because I happened to have the prior knowledge/experience (there wasn't really anything to do with intelligence in there, simply tests to make sure you knew which end of a computer the power lead went in, and understood that pressing one end of a see-saw down made the other go up), and the places where I probably lost points were because I couldn't decide from one of two options as I hadn't done that thing in a while.... a few seconds playing with it in the real world would have sorted it.

As training corps go, I've had contact with some awfully dodgy seeming ones so far, and whereas I still had reservations (and more so now, after reading this thread!) after leaving their test centre they did do a very good job of selling themselves convincingly, not just playing to my pride and greed... giving all the proper information of how much the course costs (not on their website, but immediately when I asked on the phone - and the "£1000 off this month!" banner on the website was a bit of a clue anyway), exactly what it entails on a day-by-day basis, the jobs you can get, what the likely starting salary was (about 11 to 17 they reckoned, depending on area - not 25k) and some ever so hokey looking opportunities for salary progression, though this was only mentioned once or twice rather than being rammed home. Apparently one of the people who showed up in our 5-strong group, after passing the online test, didn't do well enough to proceed. Whether they were a plant, or they went home ill / didn't fancy it any more and the guy giving the presentations was bluffing, who knows. In the end there was no hard sell, only a statement that I had done well on the (easy..) test, they thought I would have no problems passing, and if I joined within 3 months it would be a grand off the normal price, i.e. £4000 instead of 5 (forgot to ask if this could be combined with the website offer to make £3k!), but there was no obligation to sign up then and there, and if I went past that point, all I had to do was sign up for another assessment and the same offer would be made.

Of course, I did see the advert on the TV.... interested but still wary, as I've had enough warnings about such sharks in the past. One thing that did strike me was the large number of companies they said they provided steady streams of employees for - I intend to get in contact with some of them (should have asked the guy for a copy of his powerpoint presentation where a great number of them flew around the screen hehe) and see what their view of the situation is, seeing as cerco rely so heavily on their links with such employers.

One thing I am considering though - they already think with my past experience (a long and chequered history of tearing pc's to shreds ) I could probably pass the A+, and apparently the exam is offered as an optional module on the final day of the course along with their own CCSN... whether it's a cost option I don't know but suspect it is.

PS just how quickly does this board log you out, hey? I logged in to post this reply (yeah i know it's a little long but it's been <15 mins) and it's already saying my session's expired!

 

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That's strange. I have been posting here for years, from various locations in Australia, using various computers and browsers and I have never been informed that my session has expired

 

The session timeout limit is 20 Mins, that would be sufficient for anyone to make a post even one the size of yours. One tip would be to preview your post part way through, this will reset your session time.

 

Tahrey,

Another tip, nothing to do with the session time out you are experiencing, there is a quote function you can use to quote other's posts, just click on the quote button of the post you want to quote and it will be automatically inserted into your post ready for you to reply.

 

(Hmmm, maybe its because I'm using Opera since about a week ago? Firefox p'd me off for the last time but I don't want to go back to IE)

Update: after a bit of snooping on the Tresham College site, it turns out it's a FULL TIME college course. As in university style, for a year. Don't think I could quite handle that, certainly not given the location and the need to work to fund the course/living costs/transport etc damn it. Looked good up to that point.

http://www.tresham.ac.uk/Courses/Full_Time/Full_Time_Prospectus/profile.asp?Key=62
"IT Technician Level 2 Certificate"
...no information available at the website level regarding study hours / days, course cost, or whether you can still enrol late one or two weeks in. Guess I'd have to email or phone for that.

Well, maybe I'll just be off to Waterstones or the central library to find a good A+ book to browse and to james-bond-microfilm purloin any bits i'm missing with my phone cam

(Tresham do seem to offer some interesting computer audio courses though - sound engineering is something I looked into long ago, was interested by, had to give up in favour of a "proper" uni degree that's done jack squat useful)

 

I'm reviving a 5 yr old thread now!!!
Cerco are now giving the course free.. I just went to an interview today, and had to do a small test..
The reason why they r doing it free is that they are getting loads of job offers and do not have enough people to fill in the jobs (that's what we were told)

Got accepted and i'm waiting impatiently for my email... I'm probably looking to start on Monday

 

LOL yeah... But I got the training for free. I'm currently unemployed and the only thing i'll have to pay is accomodation costs for 2 weeks....
what could possibly go wrong !??

 

My 2 cents.........I trained with Cerco a couple of years ago for free (i worked on a Fujitsu call centre for them for 8 months). The course is fairly basic but they were able to place me half way through the course on a PC roll out contract within Fujistu which then led to what i consider my first proper job in IT on a helpdesk for another company.
I wouldnt have paid for the course but it did help me start in IT.

 

I paid a few years back. We did a 4 week course, in regards to finding work with them it mainly depends on the area you are from
as to how much work you may or may not get. I was in a class of 10, I’m still in contact with some of them, One is now a project manager for a medium sized I.T company, one is a server/software guy, one was working for the NHS, I no one of the other guys is still in I.T full time as well but not sure what he does as I have never asked lol. So that’s at least 50% of my class all fulltime and doing well.
I went back to Cerco 2 years ago to do the Network + as I did some contracting for them at beginning of my career which then entitled me to it for free it was an ok course. They also run the server +.

 

I took the cerco course back in 2009, although back then it was called something different. a quick look into their accounts by a friend of mine told me that they were a fly by night firm who had almost no assets, had had a number of winding down orders against them and had changed their name several times. when i questioned them about this they informed me that the emplyees had bought the company from the previous owner who was responsible for this. This seemed to check out so i took their course at a massively discounted price which they offered me, this should have been my first warning but i was desperate for work at the time so i took the course.

The tuition although technical was very thorough but to be honest theres no way a complete beginner could pick it up. One guy on the course nearly went nuts cos of information overload and disappeared for a day but thats another story. cut a long story short i passed the course with 98% but this was not because of the tuition it was because on the first day one of the guys on the course downloaded the test questions. Looking back it was obvious it was their intention for us to do this as the tutor left the room for 5 minutes immediately after showing us where the test were stored.

The real eyeopener about how this cowboy company opperates came when i got a job from them. I worked as a sub-contractor at carphone warehouse upgrading their till systems. When we were given the job we were told we would be in a decent wage. when it came to the actual paying there were all sorts of loopholes which they managed to wriggle thru with regards to Tax, NI, fuel, food etc. It turned out after working a month on this contract, that after all the deductions i earned about £35 for a weeks work.

THE MAIN THING IS DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY A PENNY.

i worked in the timeshare industry for nearly 10 years and ive never met such a slimy, slippery group of conmen as the ones who work for cerco and that is saying something. on a final note i think one of the guys on our course had seeked legal advice on suing them, dont know how far he got with that, i do know however that since i took the course theyve changed their name twice. DO NOT TOUCH THIS FIRM WITH A BARGE POLE, no matter how much the hot chick on the phone tries to sweet talk you (and she is hot trust me).

 

But apart from that, they're OK yeh?

 

lol..